Charles L. Grant

Charles L. Grant
Charles Lewis Grant (September 12, 1942 – September 15, 2006) was an American novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror". He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, Deborah Lewis, Timothy Boggs, Mark Rivers, and Steven Charles.
Biography
Early life
Charles L. Grant was born in Newark, New Jersey. He received a B.A. from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1964 and taught for four years. Then, from 1968 to 1970, Grant served in the U.S. Army military police in Vietnam and was awarded a Bronze Star.
Career
From 1973 to 1977, Grant was Secretary of Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1987-1988, he served as President of the Horror Writers Association.
Grant won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye, the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award-winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978 to 1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Al Sarrantonio, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association. His story "Temperature Days on Hawthorne Street" was adapted into an episode of Tales from the Darkside titled "The Milkman Cometh" in 1987, the same year he wrote the Introduction and Afterward to Tor Books' publication of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Grant's favorite Irving story.
Grant wrote twelve books (eight novels and four collections of four related novellas each, with interstitial material) set in the fictional Connecticut town of Oxrun Station. Three of these were intentionally pastiches of classic Universal and Hammer horror films, and feature a vampire, a werewolf, and an animated mummy.
Personal life
Grant's first wife is Debbie Voss, with whom he had two children. Ian Matthew and Emily Kathryn. Ian has two sons Payton and Logan; Emily has three children, sons Aaron and William, and daughter, Ella In February, 1982, Grant married writer and editor Kathryn Ptacek.
Death
Suffering ill health in his later years, Grant died on September 15, 2006, from a heart attack.
Critical reception
Stephen King expressed admiration for Grant's work, stating that Grant was "One of the premier horror writers of his or any generation". This quote was usually placed on the front of Grant's books. Discussing Grant's fiction, Jess Nevins said that "Grant excelled at building foreboding atmosphere and mounting dramatic tension, at characterization and pacing."
Bibliography
Horror novels
Oxrun Station
The Hour of the Oxrun Dead (1978)
The Sound of Midnight (1979)
The Last Call of Mourning (1979)
The Grave (1981)
The Bloodwind (1982)
The Soft Whisper of the Dead (1982)
The Dark Cry of the Moon (1986)
The Long Night of the Grave (1986)
Other
The Curse (1977)
The Nestling (1982)
Night Songs (1984)
The Tea Party (1985)
The Pet (1986)
For Fear of the Night (1988)
In A Dark Dream (1989)
Stunts (1990)
Fire Mask (1991) - for Young Adults
Something Stirs (1991)
Raven (1993)
Jackals (1994)
X-Files: Goblins (1994)
X-Files: Whirlwind (1995)
Millennium Quartet #1: Symphony (1997)
Watcher (World of Darkness) (1997)
Millennium Quartet #2: In The Mood (1998)
Black Oak: Genesis (1998)
Black Oak: The Hush of Dark Wings (1998)
Millennium Quartet #3: Chariot (1999)
Black Oak: Winter Knight (1999)
Millennium Quartet #4: Riders in the Sky (1999)
Black Oak: Hunting Ground (2000)
Black Oak: When the Cold Wind Blows (2001)
Science fiction
The Shadow of Alpha (1976)
Ascension (1977)
Ravens of the Moon (1978)
Legion (1979)
A Quiet Night of Fear (1981)
As "Geoffrey Marsh"
Lincoln Blackthorne series
The King of Satan's Eyes (1985)
The Tail of the Arabian Knight (1986)
The Patch of the Odin Soldier (1987)
The Fangs of the Hooded Demon (1988)
Hudson Hawk (novelization) (1991)
As "Lionel Fenn"
The Seven Spears of the W'dch'ck (1988)
The Kent Montana series
Kent Montana and the Really Ugly Thing From Mars (1990)
Kent Montana and the Reasonably Invisible Man (1991)
Kent Montana and the Once and Future Thing (1991)
Mark of the Moderately Vicious Vampire (1992)
668, the Neighbor of the Beast (1992)
The Quest For The White Duck series
Blood River Down (1986)
Web of Defeat (1987)
Agnes Day (1987)
Diego series
Once Upon A Time in the East (1993)
By The Time I Get To Nashville (1994)
Time, The Semi-Final Frontier (1994)
As "Simon Lake"
Midnight Palace series
Daughter of Darkness (1992)
Something's Watching (1993)
Death Cycle (1993)
He Told Me To (1993)
As "Mark Rivers"
Taggard Point Series
The Forever House (1995)
Shapes (1995)
Death Scream (1995)
The Clown (1995)
As "Timothy Boggs"
Hercules TV Tie-in Novels
Serpent’s Shadow (1996)
Eye of the Ram (1997)
By the Sword (1999)
As "Felicia Andrews"
Riverrun (1979)
Riverwitch (1979)
Mountainwitch (1980)
Moonwitch (1980)
Seacliffe (1984)
Silver Huntress (1984)
The Velvet Hart (1985)
As "Deborah Lewis"
Voices Out of Time (1977)
Eve of the Hound (1977)
Kirkwood Fires (1978)
The Wind At Winter's End (1979)
As "Steven Charles"
Private School series
Nightmare Session (1986)
Academy of Terror (1986)
Witch's Eye (1986)
Skeleton Key (1986)
The Enemy Within (1987)
The Last Alien (1987)
Anthologies edited
Greystone Bay series
The First Chronicles of Greystone Bay (1985)
Doom City (1987)
The SeaHarp Hotel (1990)
In the Fog (1994)
Shadows series
Shadows (1978)
Shadows 2 (1979)
Shadows 3 (1980)
Shadows 4 (1981)
Shadows 5 (1982)
Shadows 6 (1983)
Shadows 7 (1984)
Shadows 8 (1985)
Shadows 9 (1986)
Shadows 10 (1987)
The Best of Shadows (1988)
Final Shadows (1991)
Other anthologies
Nightmares (1979)
Horrors (1981)
Terrors (1982)
Gallery of Horror (1983)
Fears (1983)
Midnight (1985)
Night Visions 2 (1985)
After Midnight (1986)
Gothic Ghosts (1997) Edited with Wendy Webb
Non-fiction
Writing and Selling Science Fiction (1976)
Collections
Tales from the Nightside (1981) (includes stories set in Oxrun Station)
A Glow of Candles and Other Stories (1981)
Nightmare Seasons (1982)
Night Visions #1 (1984)
Black Wine (1986)
The Orchard (1986)
Dialing The Wind (1989)
The Black Carousel (1995)
Scream Quietly: The Best of Charles L. Grant (2011) edited by Stephen Jones
Notes
Novels set in the author's fictional town of Oxrun Station
Linked novellas set in the author's fictional town of Oxrun Station
Short fiction
"The House of Evil" (1968) F&SF, Dec
"Afternoon of the Banjo" (1971) The Little Magazine, Spr
"The Summer of the Irish Sea" (1972) Orbit 11, ed. Damon Knight
"Come Dance with Me on My Pony’s Grave" (1973) F&SF, Jul
"Abdication" (1973) Amazing Stories, Oct
"But the Other Old Man Stopped Playing" (1973) Fantastic, Apr
"The Magic Child" (1973) Frontiers 2: The New Mind, ed. Roger Elwood
"Weep No More, Old Lady" (1973) Future Quest, ed. Roger Elwood
"The Key to English" (1974) F&SF, May
"Everybody a Winner, the Barker Cried" (1974) Orbit 13, ed. Damon Knight
"Temperature Days on Hawthorne Street" (1974) The Little Magazine, Spr
"The Rest Is Silence" (1974) F&SF, Sep
"White Wolf Calling" (1975) F&SF, Apr
"The Three of Tens" (1975) F&SF, Dec
"To Be a Witch, in Three-Quarter Time" (1975) Fantastic, Feb
"Then Two or Three Are Gathered" (1975) Amazing, Mar
"In Donovan’s Time" (1975) Orbit 16, ed. Damon Knight
"Seven is a Birdsong" (1976) Analog, Jan
"A Crowd of Shadows" (1976) F&SF, Jun
"From All the Fields of Hail and Fire" (1976) Midnight Sun #4
"Through All His Blood Runs Shadow" (1976) Midnight Sun #4
"Red River Lies Drowning" (1977) Fantastic, Feb
"The Shape of Plowshares" (1977) Analog, Mar
"Treatise on the Artifacts of a Civilization" (1977) Antæus #25
"When All the Children Call My Name" (1977) The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V, ed. Gerald W. Page
"The Dark of Legends, The Light of Lies" (1977) Chrysalis, ed. Roy Torgeson
"Eldorado" (1977) The Arts and Beyond, ed. Thomas F. Monteleone
"A Glow of Candles, A Unicorn’s Eye" (1977) Graven Images, ed. Edward L. Ferman & Barry N. Malzberg
"Gently Rapping" (1977) Galaxy, Sep
"Knock, and See What Enters" (1977) Fantastic, Dec
"Hear Me Now, My Sweet Abbey Rose" (1978) F&SF, Mar
"If Damon Comes" (1978) The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VI, ed. Gerald W. Page
"Caesar, Now Be Still" (1978) F&SF, Sep
"View, with a Difference" (1978) Dark Sins, Dark Dreams, ed. Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini
"The Peace That Passes Never" (1978) Chrysalis 3, ed. Roy Torgeson
"When Dark Descends [with Thomas F. Monteleone]" (1979) Chrysalis 4, ed. Roy Torgeson
"Benny, Kind and Gentle" (1979) Weirdbook #14
"Needle Song" (1979) Midnight Sun #5
"What More Remains" (1979) Midnight Sun #5
"The Fourth Musketeer" (1979) Whispers II, ed. Stuart David Schiff
"Love-Starved" (1979) F&SF, Aug
"And Weary of the Sun" (1979) Chrysalis 5, ed. Roy Torgeson
"The Last Ambition" (1979) Whispers #13-14, Oct
"Secrets of the Heart" (1980) F&SF, Mar
"A Garden of Blackred Roses" (1980) Dark Forces, ed. Kirby McCauley
"Across the Water to Skye" (1980) New Terrors #2, ed. Ramsey Campbell
"The Other Room" (1980) Mummy!, ed. Bill Pronzini
"In Silvered Shadows Are Born the Screams" (1980) Shayol #4
"Every Time You Say I Love You" (1981) F&SF, May
"The Residents" (1981) Fantasy Newsletter #37
"Silver" (1981) Twilight Zone Magazine, July
"Quietly Now" (1981) The Arbor House Necropolis, ed. Bill Pronzini
"Coin of the Realm" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"Old Friends" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"Home" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"A Night of Dark Intent" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"The Gentle Passing of a Hand" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"Something There Is" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"Digging" (1981) Tales from the Nightside, by Charles L. Grant
"Essence of Charlotte" (1982) Twilight Zone Feb 1982
"What in Solemn Silence" (1982) Asimov's, Mar
"Prologue" (1982) Nightmare Seasons, by Charles L. Grant
"Thou Need Not Fear My Kisses, Love" (1982) Nightmare Seasons, by Charles L. Grant
"Now There Comes a Darker Day" (1982) Nightmare Seasons, by Charles L. Grant
"Night’s Swift Dragons" (1982) Nightmare Seasons, by Charles L. Grant
"The Color of Joy" (1982) Nightmare Seasons, by Charles L. Grant
"Epilogue" (1982) Nightmare Seasons, by Charles L. Grant
"Pride" (1982) F&SF, May
"The Wind of Lost Migration" (1982) Amazing, Jun
"From a Single Word" (1982) Fantasy Book, Aug
"Confess the Seasons" (1982) Perpetual Light, ed. Alan Ryan
"The Next Name You Hear" (1983) F&SF, Jan
"Recollections of Annie" (1983) Twilight Zone, Feb
"I Never Could Say Goodbye" (1983) Whispers IV, ed. Stuart David Schiff
"When I Grow Up" (1983) Whispers #19-20, October
"Let No One Weep for Poor Sally Karnes" (1983) Whispers #19-20, October
"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (1984) Fantasycon IX Programme
"A Voice Not Heard" (1984) Asimov's, Sept
"The Old Men Know" (1984) Masques #1, ed. J. N. Williamson
"The Generation Waltz" (1984) Fantasy Tales #13
"Friends in Dark Places" (1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"Family" (1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"What Are Deaths For 1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"Poor Thing" (1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"To Laugh with You, Dear" (1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"In the Blood" (1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"And We’ll Be Jolly Friends" (1984) Night Visions 1, ed. Alan Ryan
"The Card" (1984) Random Access Messages of the Computer Age, ed. Thomas F. Monteleone
"Myra" (1985) Fantasy Macabre #6
"Penny Daye" (1985) Fantasycon X Programme
"The Children, They Laugh So Sweetly" (1985) F&SF, Oct
"Prologue" (1985) Greystone Bay, ed. Charles L. Grant
"Andrew Patterson" (1985) Eldritch Tales #11
"Give Us a Big Smile" (1985) Twilight Zone, Dec
"The Price of a Toy" (1986) Twilight Zone, Apr
"Long Walk Home" (1986) Fantasy Tales #15
"An Image in Twisted Silver" (1986) World Fantasy Convention Program Book
"Crystal" (1986) F&SF, Aug
"Eyes" (1986) Halloween Horrors, ed. Alan Ryan
"Out There" (1986) Cutting Edge, ed. Dennis Etchison
"Prologue" (1986) The Orchard, by Charles L. Grant
"My Mary's Asleep" (1986) The Orchard, by Charles L. Grant
"I See Her Sweet and Fair" (1986) The Orchard, by Charles L. Grant
"The Last and Dreadful Hour" (1986) The Orchard, by Charles L. Grant
"Screaming, In the Dark" (1986) The Orchard, by Charles L. Grant
"Epilogue" (1986) The Orchard, by Charles L. Grant
"The Sheeted Dead" (1987) In the Field of Fire, ed. Jeanne Van Buren Dann & Jack M. Dann
"Listen to the Music in My Hands" (1987) Twilight Zone, Feb
"One Spring in Wyoming" (1987) Aboriginal SF, Feb/Mar
"This Old Man" (1987) Night Cry, Spring
"Everything to Live For" (1987) Whispers VI, ed. Stuart David Schiff
"Constant Father" (1987) A Southern Fantasy, ed. Ron & Val Lakey Lindahn
"Ellen, in Her Time" (1987) The Architecture of Fear, ed. Kathryn Cramer & Peter D. Pautz
"Last Night, in the Kitchen" (1988) Twilight Zone, Jun
"Spinning Tales with the Dead" (1988) Prime Evil, ed. Douglas E. Winter
"Now and Again in Summer" (1988) Fantasy Tales, v.10 #1
"My Shadow is the Fog" (1988) Ripper! ed. Gardner Dozois & Susan Casper
"City Boy" (1988) F&SF, Oct
"Snowman" (1988) Gaslight & Ghosts, ed. Stephen Jones & Jo Fletcher
"The Last Cowboy Song" (1989) Post Mortem: New Tales of Ghastly Horror, ed. Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva
"By the Sea" (1989) Scare Care, ed. Graham Masterton
"Prologue" (1989) Dialing the Wind, by Charles L. Grant
"Dialing the Wind" (1989) Dialing the Wind, by Charles L. Grant
"The Sweetest Kiss" (1989) Dialing the Wind, by Charles L. Grant
"As We Promise, Side by Side" (1989) Dialing the Wind, by Charles L. Grant
"The Chariot Dark and Low" (1989) Dialing the Wind, by Charles L. Grant
"Epilogue" (1989) Dialing the Wind, by Charles L. Grant
"Alice Smiling" (1990) Fantasy Tales v11 #4
"Alexandra" (1990) Borderlands, ed. Thomas F. Monteleone
"Pinto Rider" (1990) When the Black Lotus Blooms, ed. Elizabeth A. Saunders
"Kin" (1991) Psycho-Paths, ed. Robert Bloch
"Girl of My Dreams" (1991) Obsessions, ed. Gary Raisor
"Peacemaker" (1991) Borderlands 2, ed. Thomas F. Monteleone
"Make a Wish Upon the Moon" (1991) Dead End: City Limits, ed. Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva
"One Life, in an Hourglass" (1991) The Bradbury Chronicles, ed. William F. Nolan & Martin H. Greenberg
"The Awful Truth in Arthur's Barrow" (1992) Grails: Quests, Visitations and Other Occurrences, ed. Richard Gilliam, Martin H. Greenberg & Edward E. Kramer
"The Alien Visitor, Probably from Someplace Else" (1993) Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, Jan
"Sons" (1993) Confederacy of the Dead, ed. Richard Gilliam, Martin H. Greenberg & Edward E. Kramer
"In the Still, Small Hours" (1993) Deathport, ed. Ramsey Campbell
"Josie, In the Fog" (1993) In the Fog, ed. Charles L. Grant
"The Dead Speaketh Not, They Just Grunt Now and Then" (1993) The Ultimate Zombie ed. John Betancourt & Byron Preiss
"Name That Tune" (1993) Monsters in Our Midst, ed. Robert Bloch
"Holding Hands" (1993) Touch Wood, ed. Peter Crowther
"The Mask of Truth Has Many Holes" (1993) Cemetery Dance #15, Winter
"After You’ve Gone" (1994) Phobias, ed. Wendy Webb, Richard Gilliam, Edward E. Kramer & Martin H. Greenberg
"Sometimes, in the Rain" (1994) Northern Frights 2, ed. Don Hutchison
"Always, in the Dark" (1994) Return to the Twilight Zone, ed. Carol Serling & Martin H. Greenberg
"Prologue" (1995) The Black Carousel, by Charles L. Grant
"Penny Tunes for a Gold Lion" (1995) The Black Carousel, by Charles L. Grant
"Will You Be Mine?" (1995) The Black Carousel, by Charles L. Grant
"Lost in Amber Light" (1995) The Black Carousel, by Charles L. Grant
"The Rain is Filled with Ghosts Tonight" (1995) The Black Carousel, by Charles L. Grant
"Epilogue" (1995) The Black Carousel, by Charles L. Grant
"Gray" (1995) Dark Destiny: Proprietors of Fate, ed. Edward E. Kramer
"Riding the Black" (1997) Revelations, ed. Douglas E. Winter
"Haunted" (1997) Psychos, ed. Robert Bloch
"The Soft Sound of Wings" (1998) In the Shadow of the Gargoyle, ed. Nancy Kilpatrick & Thomas S. Roche
"Cody" (1999) Horror at Halloween, ed. Stephen Jones & Jo Fletcher
"Whose Ghosts These Are" (2001) The Museum of Horror, ed. Dennis Etchison
"For My Birthday, Another Candle" (2003) 13 Horrors, ed. Brian A. Hopkins
"Brownie and Me" (2003) The Dark: New Ghost Stories, ed. Ellen Datlow
"Friday Night at the Wicked Swan" (2005) Taverns of the Dead, ed. Kealan Patrick Burke
References
Keith Neilson, “The Oxrun Station Series” in “Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature”, vol.3, edited by Frank N. Magill, Salem Press, 1983
Douglas E. Winter, “Interview: Charles L. Grant” in “Fantasy Newsletter” January 1982
Douglas E. Winter, ”Charles L. Grant” in “Faces of Fear”, Berkeley Books, 1985
Douglas E. Winter, “A Conversation with Charles L. Grant” in “Twilight Zone, April 1987
Don D’Ammassa, “The Subtle Terrors of Charles L. Grant” in “Discovering Modern Horror Fiction II”, edited by Darrell Schweitzer, Starmont House, 1988
Interview in “Speaking of Horror”, by Darrell Schweitzer, 1994
Stanley Wiater, interview in “Dark Dreamers: Conversation with Masters of Horror”, Avon, 1990
Quietly Now: A tribute anthology for Charles L. Grant, ed. Kealan Patrick Burke, Borderlands Press, 2004 (includes interview, and bibliography)
External links
His homepage
Bio at SciFi.com
See also
List of horror fiction authors
1942 births
2006 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American editors
American fantasy writers
American horror writers
American male novelists
Nebula Award winners
World Fantasy Award-winning writers
Novelists from New Jersey
American male short story writers
American speculative fiction editors
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers